450 WORDS ON THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP

by Stan Hollenbeck

The Great Unwashed Basket of Deplorables finally got their act together ... much like they did when electing Richard Nixon except Nixon at least had some knowledge of politics and governing. They took up their slingshots and brickbats and voted like the True Believers they are. They stuck to their guns just to stick it to us.

Neither the Democrats or the so-called Progressives have done much but pay lip service or write strongly-worded letters to the New York Times to address the real hurt they have suffered for the past three decades ... mostly self-inflicted by electing and supporting Republicans and their austerity programs against their own self-interests.

If you look at the areas who voted for him vs. the areas who voted for Hillary you can see those vast rural counties where wages have stagnated due to the Walmarts moving in and closing down the stores on Main Street coupled with the decline in coal production, steel and other polluting manufacturing moving to third world countries to pollute there as well as farm consolidations and foreclosures.

Hillary's votes came from the highly populated and heavily concentrated geography on the coasts and in the great cities like Chicago. Illinois did just fine. Pennsylvania and Ohio did not.

I met Hillary twice. She is entirely different in person. As soon as the cameras turn on, she stiffens up, her voice gets an octave higher and she starts talking like the excellent lawyer that she is. She was the best-prepared individual ever to run for that office and govern without training wheels from day one but she, unlike Bill, is no campaigner.

Once again, the lure of third parties did the dirty deed of derailing Hillary's chances. We got Naderized. Add these throwaway "protest" votes in any of those "battleground" states with Hillary's and she would be president-elect today. Who's to say that all those comments on the progressive blogs vowing NEVER to vote for Hillary and touting voting Libertarian or Green or not voting at all weren't Trump or Russian SOC accounts?

What Trump said election night offers a glimmer of hope. Perhaps he actually can rise to the occasion. He certainly showed us he can keep a secret about his organizations abilities to mine Big Data and backroom deals with Rience Priebus and possibly Paul Ryan. He hinted that he will start some big public works projects like rebuilding the interstate system (needed) and probably try to cut the unions out of it. Where he gets the money remains to be seen.

In my lifetime, we managed to survive Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and the Bushes. I have every hope that the country will survive the Donald, as well.